Best Semester Ever! Go to Firenze! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Classes are flexible, interesting and worthwhile. The classes that I took were not extremely rigorous and did not require a lot of outside work. I had classes Monday-Wednesday and spent those days focused on school and spent Thursday-Sunday traveling. The classes are enough to give you both the educational taste of study abroad, and the cultural taste as well. I also got to take a cooking class, which was a plus!

On-site administration of your program

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I LOVED my apartment! I had 2 roommates, both from the states. I'm from New York, one was from Chicago, and the other one was from Colorado, but she attended school in San Diego, so we were from all over. We had a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment on Borgo San Frediano. We had a good 20 minute walk to school, but there were also buses and cabs for rainy days. We were one of the furthest apartments away, all of our friends lived closer to the school. The only downside was that we did not have WiFi in our apt (we were 1 of 2 apts in the program that didn't have WiFi), but we were able to purchase internet usb drives from the Tim store (italian version of verizon) and used that at our apt. There is also free WiFi basically everywhere you go in Florence, so we only need the Tim usb in our apt.

I lived near Esselunga, which is a grocery store chain and shopped there for our food. Everything was fresh and cheap and I spent an average of 20-30 euros on food each week. There's also the Central Market, which is great for some stuff, but can also be pretty expensive. There's this idea that you must buy all of your food from the Central Market.. but don't be fooled. All of the Florentines go to Esselunga too. Everything is just as fresh.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

My apartment was on the less touristy side of Florence, called the Oltrarno, and we were about 3 bridges down from the Ponte Vecchio. We lived in an area that was cheaper food wise (the closer you get to the Duomo, the more expensive things are), and the night life was more authentic. We lived right near La Dolce Vita, and La Cite, which were two great bars. There is also Old Stove, Red Garter, Kikuya, and Oibo just to name a few. Those are actually right by the school, but you will find more Americans there. My roommates and I stayed away from Space and Twice nightclubs. Also... if you stay out late enough you can find a Secret Bakery!

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I bought the CISI insurance that CIS Abroad provides students with, but it didn't cover much and I found that some doctors don't even accept it. I ended up purchasing another insurance. I don't remember the name of it but the school and students from other schools (Stony Brook, Fairfield, etc) all have it and know the name of it.

The city is great as far as safety goes! I lived in an area where hardly anything happened. Everyone was friendly and kept to themselves for the most part. I would say that the closer you get to the Duomo at night, the more likely it is that you'll run into problems, but only if you're alone. I only heard horror stories about girls going to the nightclubs, but never anything about the bars. Taxi's in Florence also offer a discount to women traveling alone after a certain time of night. It is pretty safe there!

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

This depends. If you are planning on staying in Florence only and not traveling anywhere... then it is going to be so affordable. However, if you are planning on traveling at least every other week (which you should), you need to save your money. Class schedules are so flexible that you could travel more days of the week than you are in class. To save money on travel, plan your trips in advance, get your plane tickets from RyanAir (5 euro flights anyone?), and stay in hostels. It's a great experience all around. Also check out FlorenceForFun and Bus 2 Alps. They offer great trips at a bundled price so you save money and eliminate the hassle of planning the whole trip yourself. I would say for a week where I was just in Florence, I spent around $50 USD a week (maybe a little more depending if I was walking by H&M or through the Leather Market). For a week where I was traveling, I would say I spent around $200-$300 per week depending on where I was going, what I was doing, etc.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

We were required to take a language course and had three meetings with Italian students where we spoke in Italian and they spoke in English. Other than that they did not push it too much, however you get a lot of exposure just by living in the city.

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• Apartment

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• Americans

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• Americans

• Flexible class schedule
• Traveling
• Living in the city

• Health insurance information

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